March 17, 2008

CEERES is co-sponsoring an upcoming concert by the Kazakh band Roksonaki. Details on their performances are below. Their tour coincides with the Persian celebration of spring, Nowruz, or Nauryz. This celebration has various expressions among the various peoples of the region. I heard a fascinating article about Nauryz on NPR Weekend Edition Sunday (March 16), and you can find it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88156775

Roksonaki will be playing their unique blend of traditional and contemporary Central Asian music on The University of Chicago campus (Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E 59th St) on Monday, March 31 at 7pm. Check here for more info!

Back on March 6, we treated to vary insightful and provocative discussion about the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, its closing, and the realities and processes for continued justice-seeking in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. One of those panelists, Gordana Igric, founder the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), sat down with Jerome McDonnell for an interview on WBEZ Chicago's Worldview - http://www.wbez.org/Program_WV.aspx?episode=19529.

March 11, 2008

Citing the recent break of Kosovo from Serbia as precedent, the breakaway region of Abkhazia in Georgia recently passed a resolution asking the international community to recognize its independence. This move came right after Russia lifted sanctions on the region. Russia says this is not related to Kosovo, whose independence Russia does not recognize.